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WALLA WALLA -- It was a historic Black Friday for America's retail industry with some major retailers opening doors at midnight for the first time, and the Walla Walla area participated with gusto.
The item that apparently drew the most attention and contention? Bath towels, "believe it or not," said Sgt. Todd Smith with the College Place Police Department.
He and three officers arrived at the Walmart on Meadowbrook Drive at 9:30 p.m. Thursday in preparation for that store's 10 p.m. unveiling of advertised Christmas-shopping specials. Including those $1.29 bath towels that caused some minor fighting and harassment of employees, he said, shaking his head. "They were a great deal and they wanted them."
More people, in fact, than Smith has seen during the box store's presence in the area, the officer noted. Shoppers' rigs had filled Walmart's parking lot, spilling over to and behind the Les Schwab Tire Store and every inch in between. "This was the busiest," Smith said. "And the most hostile."
It's the early start, he theorized. The traditional 5 a.m. on Friday start weeded some folks out "who just can't get up that early." But a 10 p.m. Thursday starting gate brought out people who had been up all day. "They've had no sleep and they're grouchy. But we had no injuries and no arrests."
By 1: 45 a.m. business was calm enough for cashiers to clot together at the front of the store and answer customers' questions. In the toy aisles, Phavong Phichith and Stephon Schulze wandered slowly with an empty cart. "We were lounging around at home and decided to come out and be entertained," Phichith explained. "I'm not big into Black Friday."
"We came late to pick up the pieces," Schulze said with a laugh.
While they were hoping to get a little shopping done for their two daughters -- who were snoozing away at home -- there was no real rush, the couple said. However, it was obvious others had felt differently. As a former Walmart employee, he knows about the "hundreds" of shopping carts the store keeps tucked away just for this day, Schulze said, noting a new cart's bright blue handle. "And they busted them out."
In front of the store, a steady line of cars snaked slowly around the corner into the automotive department's parking spaces. Those shoppers had big screen televisions to claim, noted employee Travis King. "Forty inches and up. They're picking them up in Automotive this year. Every year, (Walmart) tries something new."
According to a CNN Money report this morning, trying something new on Black Friday has brought retailers across the country a much-needed dose of Christmas cheer. "Altogether, an estimated 152 million people are expected to shop over Black Friday weekend, up 10 percent from last year," CNN said, quoting a recent report from the National Retail Federation.
Just before the clock struck midnight, eager consumers peered into the brightly-beckoning windows of Macy's on Main Street. Crowds clustered at each of the store's entry doors as jazz music from Marcy's Bar & Lounge on Colville Street poured into the night air, adding to the carnival atmosphere.
People dressed in pajamas and bed head stood shoulder-to-shoulder with folks dressed as if they were at a holiday gathering. Which, no doubt, many had been just a few hours before.
Within minutes, shoppers had their hands full of waffle irons, luggage sets and glitzy handbags. Some struggled to keep hold of multiple pillows in plastic cases as they moved through the masses that filled nearly every nook of the three-floor department store. At the jewelry counter alone, people stood in line two deep around the square of the glass display cases as one beleaguered cashier rang up purchases as fast as she could.
Then there were the boots.
Shoppers, mostly young adults, carried armloads of Rampage boots boxes. Some couples had tag teamed to haul off seven or more pairs of the footwear marked $19.99.
"It's a good buy," noted boot buyer Perles Morales, 22, who was shopping with her husband, Ramon Olmos, 28. He carried his own booty of several dress shirts.
It was the couple's first time to shop so early on Black Friday, of course, and they had not gone to bed at all. Thanksgiving dinner had been served at 2 p.m., specifically for this occasion, Olmos said. Elsewhere in the store, more family members were circulating, presumably filling their arms.
Breakfast plans included gathering together at Shari's restaurant at 6 a.m., Morales said. "Because we still have to go to the 5 a.m. sales."
In the basement housewares department, the din was noticeably muted -- perhaps absorbed by the comforter sets on sale -- as shoppers struggled to move around each other like tunneling ants.
Like an island in the stream, Byron Peterson waited for an answer about cookware from store manager Karie Brodhun. He was at Macy's with his girlfriend and they were considering the Circulon set on sale for $100, he said. "It's a good deal. I guess."
He, too, had not slept, aside from a nap while watching football, Peterson said. Black Friday is not really his thing, he added as consumers carry countertop ovens wove around him. "I would say this is not who I am. We kind of came out to get entertained."
Jake Jimenez, 19, was feeling less entertained and more overwhelmed. He was at Macy's with his parents and girlfriend, he said, nodding toward the checkout lines while sitting atop display bedding. His mom was after a toaster oven, cookware and a blender. "My dad is just here for the debit card," he noted with a smile.
One floor up and a few yards over, the junior girls' clothing section was at a standstill. Young mothers with sleeping babies in strollers were trapped among other shoppers, who seemed to be reacting to a lack of sleep.
Yards away, however, some had dropped to their knees to empty display shelves of electronic gadgets such as digital photo keychains.
Not everyone was leaving with gift goodies. Jeanie Eskildsen was empty-handed and furious, she said.
In Walla Walla to be with family for the holiday, the Montana resident had come out to the call of leather coats on sale. However, the brand of jacket she wanted turned out not to be on sale, despite hanging on a sale rack. "They're getting people here in the middle of the night under false advertisement," she said. "I will never shop here again."
By 3 a.m., employees at Shopko were still marveling over what they had been through, they said -- a parking lot packed full and lines of customers 50 feet long behind each cash register with the midnight showing of "doorbuster" deals.
"We're never like that," said Rosa Palomo, a veteran of four post-Thanksgiving shopping days at the store. "People were so excited. The rush just got over. I have never seen it like this."
Sheila Hagar can be reached at email@example.com or 526-8322.


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It appear,, Google is testing display ads in Gmail. Sterling posted the following screenshot showing the imge ad in his Gmail account this morning:
Image ads have made their way into paid search on Google.com and various other properties on Google.
A Google spokesperson provided the following comment:
We're always trying out new ad formats and placements in Gmail, and we recently started experimenting with image ads on messages with heavy image content.
They also said the ads began running last Friday.
[tags]display ads,image ads[/tags]

domain: news


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This article was originally published on The Fresh Toast and appears here with permission.
The blockchain and cannabis industries are two of the newest and largest markets to emerge in our lifetime. Both blockchain technology and the cannabis industry have reached new highs in recent years, but both are facing difficulties in 2023. The blockchain industry remains largely unregulated and is currently recovering from several high-profile scandals. Still, the value and underlying utility of blockchain tools cannot be understated. Its true potential as an unchanging database has hardly been tapped into, particularly as it relates to data recording and security tools.
The cannabis industry has seen its own struggles, as a lack of federal progress has hurt industry funding and disrupted publicly traded companies. The lack of significant banking options, difficulty in payment processing, tax and financial burdens, and lack of regulatory clarity have required cannabis businesses to go above and beyond to simply survive.
But what if these two industries could help one another – could utilizing blockchain technology and tools in the cannabis industry help both fields reach …


text: WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FDA told the manufacturer of the first skin patch to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children that the agency would approve the product if certain conditions are met, the company said Friday. In a letter to Noven Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Food and Drug Administration included proposed changes to how the patch is labeled, the Miami-based company said. The FDA also asked that the company clarify some data and conduct surveillance and study of the product once it is on the market. The patch would be sold under the name Daytrana. Earlier this month, an FDA panel of independent experts voted to recommend that the patch's label encourage its use as an alternative treatment for children between the ages of 6 and 12 with ADHD, meaning doctors should prescribe it only if taking pills is too difficult for a child. The patch is designed to go on a child's hip for nine hours, according to U.K.-based Shire Pharmaceuticals Group PLC and Noven Pharmaceuticals, which codeveloped the product. It releases into the body methylphenidate, shown to help children with ADHD. It is the same stimulant that is in Ritalin. The patch can be removed if it causes side effects. Noven in 2003 submitted a 12-hour version of the patch to the FDA. The agency rejected it and recommended Noven test a nine-hour version.


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Carrollton, Texas-based sign franchise firm FASTSIGNS International, Inc. announces the July 18 launch of its MetamorphoSIGN contest to give businesses and organizations the opportunity to win one of two free sign and graphics makeovers that will give their business a visual communications transformation.
FASTSIGNS has provided a limited number of free makeovers to small businesses in the past, but this is the first time they have used a public outlet to determine the recipient. During the MetamorphoSIGN contest, two $10,000 sign and graphics makeovers will be awarded; one winner will be voted on by the social media world online and the other winner will be determined by FASTSIGNS.
“During the voting period, anyone can cast a vote for their favorite business or organization and they can vote once a day,” said Townsend. “We’re excited for communities to get involved by showing their support for local businesses and organizations in need of a transformation—they can make a difference and help someone they know win a makeover.” For more information, visit www.metamorphosign.com.


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GTA 6 PC Release: Will PC Gamers Be Left Waiting Again?
The gaming world is buzzing with excitement and anticipation as Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6) looms on the horizon. With confirmed releases on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, players are eagerly awaiting the next installment in this iconic franchise. However, as the release date remains shrouded in secrecy, fans are growing increasingly anxious, particularly those planning to play on PC.
Concern over the availability of the PC port for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI is developing among fans of the hugely popular game series. Rockstar Games has stated that the game would be available for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, even if information regarding the game and its release date is still scant. But fans are more concerned about the PC version.
Much to the chagrin of its supporters, Rockstar Games has a history of delaying PC versions. For the most recent Grand Theft Auto game, PC players frequently had to wait months after the console release. Due of this, Reddit user Unreal_Dream and other fans have taken to making memes and participating in debates to voice their worries.In this blog post, we dive into the concerns and speculations surrounding the release of GTA 6 for PC.
Rockstar’s PC Port History
One of the key factors causing anxiety among fans is Rockstar Games’ history of releasing PC ports later than their console counterparts. This has been a recurring theme with several of their previous titles, including Grand Theft Auto IV, Bully, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2. Each of these highly anticipated games hit consoles first, leaving PC gamers twiddling their thumbs for months.
For many devoted PC gamers, this delay can be a major frustration. By the time the PC version finally arrives, the excitement that initially surrounded the game’s release has often dissipated. This pattern has raised doubts among fans about whether GTA 6 will follow the same path.
Reddit’s Mocking Meme
To gauge the level of concern among fans, one need only look at a recent Reddit post by user Unreal_Dream. They created a meme poking fun at Rockstar’s tendency to delay PC releases, which resonated with many gamers who share similar fears. The meme humorously captures the sentiments of those who anxiously await news about GTA 6’s PC launch.
Fans, determined not to miss out on the action, are beginning to formulate their own strategies. Many are considering purchasing current-gen consoles, like the PS5 or Xbox, solely to play GTA 6 at launch. The fear of encountering spoilers and missing out on the initial excitement of exploring the game world has driven some gamers to this extreme measure.
Here’s what a few fans had to say:
1. “I will buy a PS5 when GTA 6 is about to release. There is no way I am waiting a whole year. By the time it releases on PC, everything about the game will be on the internet, and I don’t want anything spoiled for me.”
2. “Eh, I’ll just buy a cheap used PS5 or Xbox by then to play GTA 6. There’s no way I’m waiting another year. Then I’ll just sell the stuff when it comes to PC.”
3. “This is the only reason I’m saving up for a PS5, just so I could play GTA 6 day one on launch.”
Clearly, fans are prepared to go to great lengths to ensure they don’t miss out on the highly anticipated title. The prospect of experiencing the game on day one is a powerful motivator.
Grand Theft Auto VI’s publisher, Take-Two Interactive, has hinted at a 2025 release even though an official release date has not been disclosed. It is crucial to remember that a lot of the release date information that is circulating is based on rumors and conjecture.
Take-Two’s Hints at 2025 Release
While Rockstar Games has been tight-lipped about GTA 6’s release date, Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, has dropped some hints. These hints have fueled even more speculation within the gaming community. According to Take-Two, GTA 6 might see the light of day in 2025, suggesting that a reveal could be just around the corner.
GTA 6’s release date has not been specified. Take-Two Interactive may release GTA 6 during its fiscal year of 2025, which runs from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025. The impact may be seen in Take-Two’s most recent annual financial report, which noted a stratospheric spike* in expected bookings for its fiscal year 2025. This rise may be explained by the expectation of GTA 6.
However, it’s essential to remember that much of the discourse surrounding the release date is based on rumor and speculation. Fans should take this information with a hefty handful of salt until an official announcement is made.
As the gaming world eagerly awaits the arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI, fans, especially those on PC, are understandably concerned about a potential delay in the PC release. Rockstar Games’ track record of releasing PC versions later than their console counterparts has raised valid concerns among the community.
Reddit memes and fan discussions serve as a testament to the apprehension that has gripped the gaming community. Players are contemplating buying current-gen consoles just to experience GTA 6 at launch, fearing spoilers and missing out on the initial excitement.
While hints from Take-Two suggest a potential 2025 release, it’s important to remember that much of this information is speculative. Only time will reveal when PC gamers will get their hands on GTA 6. Until then, fans must remain patient and keep a close eye on official announcements from Rockstar Games. The anticipation continues to build, and the gaming world holds its breath for the moment when GTA 6 finally hits PC screens worldwide.


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- Responding to Roger Ebert’s reviews
- T/F Film Fest
- About Vox
When the full moon rises in May next year, don’t be surprised if you hear a louder than usual howl in Columbia – or if you see werewolves roaming the city.
A gathering of Werewolf fans will be held here then and will feature all things werewolves. Called “Werewolf Con,” event will be held over three days starting on May 4 at the Midway Expo Center.
Like Comic Con, a convention held in San Francisco for comic book fans and publishers, Werewolf Con, too, will feature a film fest, an arts and fashion show, a masquerade parade – and even a Werewolf Ball Concert. The event already has a couple of prominent comic creators on its guest list, including David Gallaher and Steve Ellis of High Moon fame.
Tickets and merchandise are already for sale on the event’s website.
Werewolf Con is organized by Con Extreme, an event company based out of Kansas City.
Werewolf-Con is a “educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, Werewolves, Therians, Shifters and Otherkin. We celebrate the historic and ongoing contributions of all things related to the culture and belief,” according to its website,
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The computer system at the Beirut Port's customs administration broke down on Wednesday, temporarily paralyzing control operations on goods entering and leaving the, but was fixed at the end of the day, said a spokesman for the customs directorate.
The spokesman added that the transit of goods returned to normal on Thursday with "a certain level of congestion" due to the accumulated backlog.
The system was down from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, briefly came back online, then went down again from 12:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Reports concerning the breakdown of the computer system, known as "Najm" (an Arabic acronym for Customs Information System), were relayed on Wednesday by the president of the Lebanese Transport Agents' Union, Marwan al-Yama, who was quoted by the state-run National News Agency (NNA).
According to Yama, the breakdown caused major disruption to the transit of goods, as confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour by two sources working for shipping companies who wished to remain anonymous for professional reasons.
"It's logistic hell every time it happens," said one of the sources.
Yama, for his part, spoke of "a congestion of trucks loaded with goods."
Nothing gets through
According to a source in the Beirut Port administration, who is not authorized to speak to the press, Wednesday was not the first time that the Najm system, set up in 1997, broke down.
"The last time was a few months ago. Each time, it takes customs one or two days to get the system up and running again," said the source. "And if the system doesn't work, nothing can go through in either direction. Ships can continue to unload their goods while there's still room, or pick up what has already been cleared, but that's it."
"As long as it lasts one or two days, the repercussions can be contained, and even if the outage has nothing to do with port management, they may decide to make an effort on the storage fees charged to customers," the source added.
Customs has not released any information on the cause of the breakdown, which may be linked to a maintenance problem or simply the age of the system.
The Port of Beirut was partially destroyed by the Aug. 4, 2020, explosion, but its container terminal and 16 giant cranes — through which it generates most of its revenues — remain operational.
The terminal is managed by the Port of Beirut Management and Operating Committee (GEPB), founded by the Lebanese state in 1990.
Since 2022, the container terminal has been managed by French transport and logistics giant CMA CGM. According to the latest official figures, the medium-sized port handled 2.55 million tons of goods in the first 6 months of the year, up 4.1 percent year-on-year.


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PHOTO FILE: Workers load goods to be exported to cranes at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China June 7, 2019. Photos taken June 7 2019. REUTERS / Stringer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Office of the US Trade Representative on Monday will begin seven days of testimony from US retailers, producers and businesses about President Donald Trump's plan to get $ 300 billion in Chinese goods at a tariff.
The trial, which began Monday, will end on June 25, the USTR said in a statement on Friday. That timeline means Trump will not be able to trigger a wave of new tariffs until after July 2, when the seven-day comment period ends.
US-China relations have deteriorated since Trump accused Beijing in early May of reneging on its commitment to change the way it does business with other countries in the world.
Since then, Trump has raised the tariff to 25% in the $ 200 billion of Chinese goods and ordered his trade representatives to prepare tariffs on other $ 300 billion, which effectively covers almost all Chinese exports to the United States.
Trump said he wanted to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the June 28-29 G20 leaders' summit in Japan, but no government confirmed the meeting.
Another proposed tariff of $ 300 billion is "further responses to China's unfair trade practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation," the USTR said in a statement on Friday.
The tariff will suppress consumer goods, including cellphones, laptop computers, toys, video game consoles, television sets, clothing and footwear.
A list of more than 300 witnesses scheduled includes representatives from Best Buy retailers, toy maker Hasbro Inc. makers of iRobot vacuum cleaners, Moen tap makers and other companies and trade groups in various industries.
Reporting by Chris Prentice and David Lawder; Editing by Tom Brown


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Zimbabwe’s erratic energy supplies are a stumbling block for the proliferation of ICT to propel the economy. The country is dependent on its neighbours for fuel supplies and owes mammoth debts to regional electricity producers. It has also not kept up with rest of the world’s quest to find sustainable energy sources. Fossil fuels are key culprits of global warming and finite in the sense that they are running out.
In an increasingly globalised world, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has taken developing countries by storm. By consistently underpricing developed markets, thousands of jobs and opportunities are being created at breakneck speeds everyday. This article seeks to provide a bird’s eye view of the sector with regards to Zimbabwe’s shot at becoming a competitive hub on the continent and within the greater Southern Hemisphere. We’re not quite sure when exactly the BPO boom began, we are more than certain however of the fact that it’s a very lucrative sector to enter for entrepreneurs and this nation.
Going over reports from the ICT global conference held in Harare last week, we came across something that made us stop. It’s a report published by “The Zimbabwean” that basically says Broadlands Networks is preparing to launch a 5G network. Here’s an extract from the report:
Joina City has freshened up Harare’s shopping scene; it’s good to note that top notch brands like Samsung have landed to serve the local market. Samsung’s aggressive foray into Africa is well documented as it is charging across the continent to address markets that other prominent brands are foolishly ignoring. Football fanatics (albeit Chelsea F.C fans) should vividly remember the brand’s ads that show up before particular matches, featuring three African master- players. Rather than focusing on the obvious popularity of football as a marketing vehicle, such ads show a perceived respect for African consumers by the brand. It’s only few tech brands that have designed ads specifically for the African market on a continental scale…
If you either hated history or fell asleep halfway through the lesson; Gondwanaland was a great big continental block that contained what we refer to as Africa, India, Australia, and other sub-continents. Its existence is based on theoretical assumptions related to the earth’s evolution.
I’ve met more than enough Zimbabweans (geeks and ordinary humans alike) who feel that the local ICT sector is not up to scratch. When asked to specify what being “up to scratch” is, most immediately and rather animatedly set off an explosive cache of various beliefs, facts and figures. However correct some of the well informed opinion holders may be, there are a few cold facts that have rendered their sentiments to the confines of wishful thinking. They are as follows:
Winky D shot to stardom in a manner that left many recovering from his mesmerising impact. From the dusty streets of Kambuzuma he has risen to defy all established conventions by taking over local airwaves, entertainment systems, and many an iPod/mp3 player. Before his emergence, Dancehall was a niche genre for Rastafarians and hardcore fanatics; he has not only transformed this but created a very compelling mainstream brand.


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How to legally steal $35,000 from Vladimir Putin According To Jim Rogers
Jim Rogers told me to come here.
We were having dinner a few weeks ago in Singapore, and Jim had just returned that morning from Russia full of optimism for the improving economy.
I had been meaning to come back here anyhow to scout out private equity deals.
But after hearing Jim’s take on Russia having just met with a lot of the country’s business elite, it really lit a fire.
As I’ve written so many times in this letter, I’m really a pathetic tourist. I’ve been to Paris countless times and have never bothered to visit the Eiffel Tower.
When I travel, it’s to either build and maintain relationships, or to put boots on the ground and seek out risks and opportunities first hand.
On my return to Russia, the country has not disappointed.
You’ve probably heard about how the Russian economy has been depressed over the last few years.
Much of this was due to international sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 against the wishes of Ukraine, Europe, and pretty much the whole world.
Russia’s credit rating was downgraded, and foreign businesses and investors started pulling their money out en masse.
The capital flight was extreme. Between 2014 and 2015, $210 billion fled Russia, more than 10% of the country’s GDP. That’s an enormous figure.
Then the price of oil collapsed– from $115 in June 2014 to less than $30 just over a year later. Natural gas and other major commodities also fell.
Bear in mind that oil and gas exports are a major component of the Russian economy, so the effects were devastating to both GDP and financial markets.
Russia’s economy didn’t just contract. It shriveled. And the stock market crashed.
On top of everything else, the Russian ruble went into freefall, losing 35% of its value in a matter of months.
This made imports a LOT more expensive, dramatically pushing up the rate of inflation.
Russia has essentially been suffering the worst combination imaginable– consumer price inflation, economic contraction, capital flight, credit downgrades, international sanctions, stock market crash, currency crisis– all simultaneously.
Frankly it’s pretty miraculous this place didn’t descend into Venezuela-style chaos.
But it didn’t. In fact the situation has stabilized and a lot of data shows the economy is turning around. The worst seems to be over.
And yet opportunities still abound.
For example, the Russian stock market is still incredibly cheap.
The average Russian company is selling for just 7.5 times earnings and 20% less than its book value. Plus it pays more than a 4% dividend.
This is like buying a dollar for 80 cents and receiving 3.3 cents on top of that each year.
(US stocks sell for 25 times earnings and 200% MORE than book value, meaning they are historically overvalued and very expensive compared to Russia.)
In addition to stocks, the Russian currency is still far below its historic average.
Aside from making the country dirt cheap for anyone with foreign currency, I discovered something very interesting today:
Some of Russia’s coins are now worth less than their metal values.
I’ll explain– all coins are made of some metal, usually some combination of nickel, copper, etc. And that metal has a certain cost.
A dime coin in the US, for example, has about 1.2 cents worth of metal, mainly copper (91%) and nickel.
So if you melted down a US dime, which has a 10 cent face value, and sold off the metal for 1.2 cents, you’d lose 8.8 cents in the process.
The Russian ruble has become so cheap, however, that some of its coins are basically worthless.
The 1 kopek coin, for example, is the smallest denomination Russian coin that’s worth 1/100th of a ruble.
At current exchange rates that’s $0.00015, or about 0.015 cents! It’s nothing.
And yet each kopek coin is comprised of 1.5 grams worth of copper, nickel, and steel; and the melt value of these metals is worth a hell of a lot more than 0.015 cents.
In fact Russian coin dealers have estimated that the metal value of this coin is worth more than THIRTY FIVE TIMES its face value.
That’s quite a return on investment.
So theoretically $1,000 worth of these coins could be worth more than $35,000 in profit because of the metal value.
Now, I’m not suggesting you book a flight to Russia to scoop up and melt down all the coins you can find.
But it’s worth pointing out that these sorts of anomalies don’t come around too often. And when they do, it’s important to pay attention.
Jim Rogers is one of many legendary investors who has been buying in Russia. Templeton’s Mark Mobius has called Russia the “bargain of the century.”
He may be right. Russia is incredibly cheap.
That’s not to say it can’t get cheaper. Or that it can’t stay cheap for a while.
There has to be a catalyst in order for all the pent-up value to be realized.
But that seems to be happening now. Slowly. Russia is mending fences with Europe. Oil prices have climbed 40% from their lows. Capital is returning. It’s getting better.
18th century British banking mogul Baron Rothschild is often quoted as saying “Buy when there’s blood in the streets [even when that blood is your own].”
That may be too hardcore for most investors.
I prefer to buy when assets are still ultra-cheap, but there are obvious signs that things have turned around.
That time seems to be now.


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Grocery delivery startup Flink said on Friday it had raised $240 million from investors, just six months after the Berlin-based company was founded, and struck a strategic partnership with the REWE Group supermarket chain.
Flink is one of a crop of firms including Gorillas, Getir, and Weezy that have grown explosively during the COVID-19 pandemic with their promise to deliver groceries within minutes of an order being placed via a smartphone app.
Its Series A funding round was led by Dutch-based consumer internet investor Prosus, San Francisco technology investor BOND, and Mubadala Capital, which is part of Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund.
Flink said it has set up more than 50 local hubs in its first four months of operation, and is opening a new hub every two days and can already reach more than three million customers directly.
"The order growth we have seen over the past weeks has been explosive and we attribute that to the excellent service we are providing to our consumers," said founder Oliver Merkel.
With global player Delivery Hero announcing a return to its German home market, attention is being focused on whether establishing a standalone operation or partnering with supermarkets will be the better strategy.
Flink: 'A Pioneer'
Commenting on the partnership with Flink, CEO of REWE Group, Lionel Souque, said, "Flink is a pioneer in this segment with a strong founding and management team, outstanding expertise and promising prospects. We are convinced that through our financial commitment in the form of a minority stake and the cooperation in the goods sector, we can make a decisive contribution to the long-term success of nimble and at the same time, as REWE Group, benefit from the development of the market segment."
Flink's capital raise rounds off a record week for investing in German startups, with software company Celonis raising $1 billion, and online insurer Wefox and transport app Flixbus both pulling in $650 million.


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Shandong’s diverse industrial sectors have given rise to a highly-segmented logistics industry. Industries in Shandong are seeking to optimise supply chain management with higher value-added logistics services, particularly regarding the its well-established food industry and growing pharmaceuticals sector. Hong Kong companies are well placed to benefit from the emerging opportunities.
Are high-tech solutions the answer to the extraordinarily high levels of sleep disorders suffered across the mainland? Judging from the enthusiasm of attendees at this year's China International Sleep Industry Expo, recently held in Guangzhou, it's a possibility that many aspiring manufacturers in the sector would be wise to wake up to.
EU and Chinese mainland adopt initiatives on improving their economic relationship during 16th EU-Chinese mainland Summit
On 21 November 2013, the 16th EU-Chinese mainland Summit was hosted in Beijing. During this Summit, representatives from each of the giant trading blocs exchanged their views on their political and economic relationship and expressed their desire to increase trade between the Chinese mainland and the EU by 2020.


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Amazon removed an offensive campaign which utilized Nazi symbols following public backlash.
Online retail giant Amazon has decided to withdraw an extensive ad campaign featured throughout the New York subway system that showed US flags overlaid with German Nazi and Japanese Imperial symbols, Buzzfeed reported on Tuesday. It was a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, not Amazon, who made the announcement.
Passengers were shocked on Tuesday to discover the ads plastered on the New York City subway chairs, including New York city assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn native and son of Holocaust survivors, who called on holiday shoppers to say “no” to Amazon this season.
“Amazon knows exactly what they are doing,” Hikind said, according to the New York Observer. “The pain they are causing by plastering the subway with Nazi regalia is disgusting.”
Many critics noted that Holocaust survivors were forced to ride on the subway on Tuesday along with the suggestive Nazi imagery. Some noted the irreverence of the ads appearing on a train.
One of the ads showed a US flag with the white stars replaced with the Nazi eagle emblem, or the Rheichsadler, with a cross instead of a swastika. Another showed a vague mashup of the US and Japanese Rising Sun flags, the latter of which, unlike the Nazi flag in Germany, can still be flown legally in Japan today.
The new Amazon series, “The Man in the High Castle,” based on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel of the same name, is set in an alternative world that depicts life in America after World War II which was won by the Nazis.
Needless to say, users on social media were up in arms.
Free speech advocate Pamela Gellar, notable for helping to organized a Mohammed cartoon-drawing contest, slammed Amazon and the MTA, which banned her political group’s ads when it axed all political ads earlier this year.”Seriously??” she tweeted, “MTA Bigots Plaster Nazi Flag Ads on NYC Subway But BAN ALL AFDI Ads: Despite having won numerous legal free …”
Others called Amazon to be ashamed and called the campaign “appalling, incredibly tone-deaf & offensive ad campaign.”
By: The Algemeiner
Bring Joy to Israeli Soldiers - Send Winter Care Packages!
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Join us in sending winter care packages and personal notes of support to Israeli soldiers who are out in the cold all day.
Warm up a soldier's heart with essential winter wear including fleece jackets, hats, gloves and more. Keep an entire unit warm!
THE SOLDIERS REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR LOVE AND CONCERN!
Click Here to Send Your Gift and Personal Note to Israeli Soldiers


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This self-proclaimed big mouthed chef says that she is using it to make her case heard in Congress. She went on a one-day tour to Washington as part of her efforts. On that day, she visited an elementary school and talked to the children about choosing healthy food. She also met with some members of the Congress to lobby her cause. Of course, a food-related visit to Washington is not complete without a visit to the First Lady’s kitchen garden.
So what exactly is Rachel Ray pushing? It is a piece of legislation that will create new standards for school food. The body behind this is the Agriculture Department. And, when we say school food, we mean ALL food that is served in school premises. Aside from cafeteria food, vending machines are also covered. The ultimate goal is to provide healthy choices to the students.
The main problem the bill is facing is the lack of funding. What is proposed is merely half of what the President recommended. Rachel Ray and other lobbyists and supporters are asking for more money to be allocated to the nutrition program.
More than this cause, however, Rachel Ray has also started a charity dubbed Yum-o! The purpose of the charity is to inform children on how to eat in a healthy manner. She’s got it right, I think – you gotta start ‘em young!
In some parts of the world, Fridays are considered to be a “meatless” day. That is, some people do not eat pork, beef, or any other animal flesh (except for fish and other seafood). I think this is because Friday is traditionally believed to be the day that Jesus Christ died. I could be wrong about the reason, but in any case, I am sure about this: Iron Chef Mario Batali has joined a cause. The Meatless Monday cause.
What’s it about? The initiative is being carried out by The Monday Campaigns, together with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The main goal is to cut back on the consumption of meat by 15% by not consuming meat on Mondays.
Now why would they want to do that? The answer is simple: eating less meat can be good for your health. Eating less meat also contributes to the efforts to save the planet.
The idea is noble, and the implementation quite simple – theoretically. For meat lovers, it might not be as easy.
Anyhow, famed celebrity chef Mario Batali, who is known for his love of meat, has decided to join the cause. It might seem ironic at first, since he has this awesome way with all sorts of meat. However, the chef himself justifies his commitment to Meatless Mondays:
“The fact is, most people in the U.S. eat way more meat than is good for them or the planet, Asking everyone to go vegetarian or vegan isn’t a realistic or attainable goal. But we can focus on a more plant-based diet. That’s why I’m such a big believer in the Meatless Monday movement!”
So how’s the chef going to go about it? All of his restaurants – all 14 of them – will be serving at least two vegetarian options every Monday. Pretty cool, although it would have been more radical if he had decided not to serve meat at all on Mondays, right?
Celebrity chefs may be in their element in the kitchen, but that doesn’t mean that they venture out into the unknown as well. Not that Apple (the tech company, not the fruit associated with Newton) and its plethora of gadgets and applications can be considered unknown. After all, it has revolutionized consumer electronics in the past decade or so.
Anyhow, it seems that celebrity chefs are taking the battle to the mobile scene. In the past year, various chefs have been releasing their own iPhone apps in an effort to stay current. Jamie Oliver (of course he’s going to be mentioned) released his cookery app late last year and gained the distinction of being the top-grossing app in the UK within days of the release! Up till now, it has remained in the top 5.
Recently, Nigella Lawson has decided to join the Apple fray. She released her own app last week, dubbed Quick Collection. Within hours, the app became the top selling lifestyle app in the UK. Now how impressive is that?
As for what’s going on in that pretty head of hers, this is what she had to say:
I am iPhone-obsessed and app-addicted anyway, so feel particularly excited about my own ‘Nigellapp’.
This really feels like an application that is comfortable to use, either to inspire after a long day, or give general and specific cooking tips. I am very proud of this gorgeous little greed-gadget.
Nigellapp – now that’s funny! If you’re okay with spending ₤4.99 for 70 recipes and 40 minutes of video, you should download this app now.
For quite some time, Jamie Oliver’s Italian in Cardiff has been enjoying “exclusive rights” to the area. With the opening of a rival Italian restaurant, however, the celebrity chef’s restaurant just might have to prove itself worthy.
Another celebrity chef, Antonio Carluccio has just opened another Italian restaurant in the vicinity, in fact very close to Jamie Oliver’s own. He is starting out with quite a competitive spirit, mind you. During the launch of his Italian diner at St. David’s Centre, Carluccio sent out a message to his rival saying that Oliver’s restaurant “isn’t real Italian.” Strong words, aren’t they?
And, if the feedback from the customers is any indication, Carluccio just might give Oliver a run for his money. According to Simon Kossoff, Carluccio’s partner and the managing director of the restaurant, their customers have indeed been saying that they are the “real deal.” And all this within a week of the opening!
Obviously, I have not had the honor of dining at Carluccio’s new restaurant, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a try. The prices do not seem too bad as well, with an average meal (including wine) costing about ₤17. This is another strong point in favor of Carluccio – they say that people are quite happy with the price as well as the quality of the food. With the trend in Britain shifting from a fascination with French food to Italian food, no one will be surprised to see this new place flourish. I wonder what Jamie Oliver has to say about it all?
If you haven’t already heard, Jamie Oliver’s latest stunt is to conquer America through his show Food Revolution. His aim is not so small: to wage a full-blown war against fat in this country of excess. Indeed, put that way, it seems that Jamie might be fighting a losing battle!
You have to say this of Jamie: he is not a coward. He headed off to Huntington, West Virginia to carry out his crusade against fat. What’s in Huntington? Well, it simply is the unhealthiest city in the country, with the distinction of having the highest rate of diabetes. Good luck, Jamie.
Despite his charms and rational approach (I think it’s pretty rational and quite inspiring, too, actually), the population of Huntington were not charmed. Not at all. Read what the Herald Sun reported:
However, the city’s adult population, nearly half of whom are considered obese, were far from keen to be preached to on the topic of healthy eating.
In one clip of the show, which ran a preview on Sunday, a talk show host at a local radio station is seen berating a stunned Oliver, commenting: “We don’t want to sit around eating lettuce all day. Who made you king?”
I’ll make him my king any day!
Anyway, the resistance and meanness of the people he encountered seems to have worn away Jamie’s chirpiness. Still, I am sure he’ll get back up and continue with his crusade. We’re behind you on this, Jamie!


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For the hardcore action role-playing game Bloodborne, fans were perplexed and disappointed by the rumors that a remaster of the adventure action game Horizon Zero Dawn were launched a few years ago on the PlayStation 4 and ported onto the PC. Some players have asked Sony for an update and remake for Bloodborne for the PlayStation 5. However, some players haven’t received any response.
According to fans, The FromSoftware project, released seven years ago, deserves more than the creation of Guerrilla Games. They scream on social media.
Sony remasters every PlayStation 4 match except Bloodborne. That makes me sick.
PlayStation is going to remake Ragnarok after Bloodborne.
Sony has an outstanding profit. Can you do whatever money takes to satisfy FromSoftware fans? Jim, stay awake! Especially with the popularity of this ELDEN RING. They wrote.
Bloodborne fans are now available.
A similar mixed reaction was also caused by the remake of Last of Us, released on the PlayStation 5, which became unnecessarily called unnecessary in the gaming community due to the presence of a remaster. Some people thought this house a loose house.


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Cemu, the world’s first real Wii U emulator, is now available to the general population as a proof-of-concept release that gives us hope for the future. The emulator currently has “basically no optimizations whatsoever” and does not support gamepads or even audio at this state. Still, it is a brilliant first release that you can also try out today, provided that you have an updated NVIDIA GPU, a Windows x64 PC and OpenGL 3.3, not to mention a Wii U game in a raw dump format (WUD or ISO).
Before you get too disappointed with the drawbacks, know that Cemu has the potential to reach Dolphin-like levels of emulation prowess. Exzap, the creator of Cemu, has been actively working on the emulator for at least 6 months but the current plan is to release a new update full of improvements every two weeks. As you can see from the video above, Cemu is already capable of running and rendering games so everything from here on out will be focused on getting the games to behave properly and run smoothly.
In contrast to the vast majority of other emulators, Cemu is not an open-source project. The only thing we know about its code is that it differs from Dolphin, a statement that had to be made before the inevitable comparisons wave in. The only remaining thing now is to see how Nintendo reacts to this seeing as how the company hates the guts of every emulator out there, even for consoles as old as the Game Boy.


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Apple plans to start offering an online TV service with about 25 channels this fall, The Wall Street Journal reports. The slimmed-down TV bundle, anchored by networks ABC, CBS and Fox and featuring popular cable channels like ESPN and FX, would be available on all devices powered by Apple’s iOS operating system, including iPhones and iPads, as well as Apple TV set-top boxes.
People familiar with the talks said NBC and its family of cable networks aren’t part of the discussions after a deal between NBC parent company Comcast and Apple couldn’t be made. Some media executives estimate the service will cost between $30 to $40 a month, deeply undercutting the average $90 that cable companies charge — albeit with fewer channels.
Roadblocks in the talks could stall plans to announce the service in June and launch it in September, but Apple’s deal to be HBO Now’s exclusive launch partner appears to have given Apple momentum to enter the TV market.


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Groundbreaking held for Giti Tire’s US plant
An event was held yesterday to mark the official start of work on Giti Tire’s new facility in the USA. Local and company dignitaries, including Giti Tire executive chairman Enki Tan, were present at the Chester County site in South Carolina to mark the groundbreaking with a ceremonial shovelful of soil.
Enki Tan said the erection of Giti Tire’s US$560 million plant is a “big, complicated project” but expressed confidence in the team assigned to realise the tyre maker’s aim to locally meet regional demand for passenger car and light truck tyres and stated that Giti Tire is “so very happy to call Chester home.” A five million tyre per annum capacity is planned for the 1,800,000 square foot (16,700 square metre) factory and distribution centre in its first phase, which is expected to be complete in 2017, however the tyre maker has already said further capacity increases are anticipated and will be implemented as demand dictates.
Giti Tire has been embraced by Chester County as something of a saviour. The area has experienced unemployment reaching upwards of 20 per cent, and one local publication comments that Chester County was previously a “self-described bridesmaid for many major economic development projects.” Once complete, the Giti Tire plant will directly employ some 1,700 people and attract further investment in the area; summing up local feeling towards the factory project, county supervisor Carlisle Roddy opined that “the face of Chester will never be the same.”


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National Restaurant Association Acquires Majority Stake In Winsight, Blackstone Scoops Up IDG for $1.3 Billion
Throughout the trade show and related industries, new mergers and acquisitions are being established as organizations position themselves for future growth and success. Take a look at two major deals that happened earlier this month:
National Restaurant Association and Winsight
On June 1, the National Restaurant Association announced that it has taken a majority stake in Chicago-based Winsight Holdings, LLC, a media, events and information company that connects the restaurant, foodservice, convenience retailing and grocery industries through an extensive portfolio of research, events and industry news.
The deal intensifies a three-year equity partnership between the two organizations that began in 2018 with Winsight’s acquisition of the National Restaurant Association Show, the world’s largest annual gathering of foodservice professionals. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Winsight will remain an independent entity and its senior leadership team will stay in place with Mike Wood as CEO. The organization will continue to own and operate the annual National Restaurant Association Show, which has not been held in-person since 2019, but is set to return May 21-24, 2022 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The market-leading event will continue to be promoted jointly.
“Together, the National Restaurant Association and Winsight will be better positioned to support the dynamic demands of the restaurant, foodservice and allied retail industries as it continues to rebuild,” explained NRA President and CEO Tom Bené in a statement. “The association’s investment in Winsight reinforces its commitment to support and best represent the interests of the entire industry.”
In addition to the National Restaurant Association Show, Winsight operates the annual Restaurant Leadership Conference, the tech-focused FSTEC, the Global Restaurant Leadership Conference and Outlook Leadership. It also owns Technomic, a market intelligence firm that provides insights to the food and beverage industries, as well as restaurant, c-store and grocery trade publications Restaurant Business, CSP, Foodservice Director and Winsight Grocery Business.
The deal, designed to provide Winsight with more fiscal flexibility, follows a difficult year that significantly damaged the restaurant industry.
“In the face of an historic challenge, our industry has shown resilience, innovation and teamwork,” Wood said. “Restaurants are in the early days of a comeback that promises significant growth for the next five years. Convenience and grocery stores have evolved and redefined what it means to be essential. Thanks to this renewed partnership with the Association, Winsight’s market-defining thought leadership will be available to fuel a rebirth.”
Blackstone and International Data Group
On June 3, the firm announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IDG from Oriental Rainbow, LLC, a subsidiary of China Oceanwide Holdings Group.
Founded in 1964, IDG delivers proprietary insights and data for technology suppliers and buyers on every major shift in the technology market through events, research and media brands including CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, Macworld, Network World, PCWorld and Tech Hive.
“The high-quality data, analytics and insights IDG delivers to technology leaders are only becoming more critical as the pace of growth and innovation accelerates,” said Peter Wallace, global head of Core Private Equity at Blackstone. “IDG has a trusted brand and deep knowledge of tech suppliers and buyers, and our investment will help the company accelerate its plans for creating even more advanced product offerings across its business.”
The new ownership will allow IDG to invest significantly in additional opportunities for ongoing growth across its technology and product portfolio, including strategic acquisitions to extend its market leadership position, according to IDG officials.
“Additional capital investment from Blackstone will allow us to cultivate our rich history of innovation and accelerate our product roadmaps to bring our customers the deeper insights and data they need to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving digital economy,” said IDG CEO Mohamad Ali. “The IDG management team is also excited for the growth opportunity this acquisition creates as we deliver even greater value to our customers.”
IDG, Inc. and its subsidiaries have made multiple recent acquisitions to further increase its capabilities for its customers. In 2020, it purchased Triblio to expand its SaaS platform and bolster its ability to support robust marketing activation programs. Last month, it acquired Metri to increase its IT pricing dataset, adding IT budget and operations benchmarking and sourcing services.


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Plastic bag usage should be banned: Karavaki
July 12, 2018 6:28 pm
Praising some of the new initiatives announced in the 2018/2019 National Budget, Opposition MP Semesa Karavaki has voiced his concerns regarding the plastic bag policies.
Karavaki is suggesting to completely ban the use of plastic bags instead of increasing it from 10 cents to 20 cents in the next financial year.
He believes the increased levy will not reduce the environmental problems posed by plastic bags.
“We can buy it at 50 cents, we can buy it at even one dollar but what will happen is that the same outcome will be achieved whereby, the used plastic bag will be discarded into the ocean.”
However, Economy Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says a ban will be put in place in due course.
“Two years has been allowed for everybody to be allowed to adjust themselves to the total ban. What we have done as highlighted by the Environment Minister is that people have stocks and we need to make sure that they get rid of their stocks. We need to ensure we generate a culture of people using more reusable bags.”
The plastic bag levy was introduced in the 2017/2018 National Budget for all retail outlets that have point-of-sale registers.
The increase in the levy is aimed to further discourage the use of plastic bags and promote the use of reusable bags.


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If liquor stores are allowed to sell liquor on Sundays, Gator's Liquor store owner Jon Mast thinks that could mean the end for some small liquor stores.
A bipartisan bill reintroduced in the Senate this week aims to repeal the long-standing ban of selling off-sale liquor on Sundays—and would allow liquor store owners the option of being open for business seven days a week.
The bill would also allow sales on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve (after 8 p.m.) and Christmas Day.
"I think that would be the end of the ma and pa liquor stores because I believe that just invites the grocery stores to get their alcohol and liquor in their stores," Mast said. "That means we're going to have to struggle to be open seven days a week."
While some say that repealing the ban would give the option of being open seven days a week, Mast said there really is no option.
"If you want to compete with the bigger stores, you'd have to be open," Mast said. When people say it’s your choice you can, but you pretty much have to be open — you’re forced to be open."
State Sen. Chuck Wiger told Oakdale Patch that he has concerns about liquor stores being open on Sundays.
"No one has contacted me to express support for the proposal," Wiger said. "I spoke recently to some area liquor store owners and they opposed the legislation."
Wiger said that the owners he spoke with said that most customers make the necessary purchases to get around the Sunday closings.
Another way to understand the issue is to look at the lobbyists behind it.
The state’s liquor lobby—made up of Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association (representing 90 percent of the city-owned liquor stores) and the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association—have long opposed a repeal of the ban.
"We just want to keep things as they are," Frank Ball, executive director of the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, told the Star Tribune this week. "Wisconsin's got their way of doing things, and Minnesotans have their way of doing things."
Public opinion polls show Minnesotans are in favor of Sunday sales. Currently, Minnesota is one of 12 states that still ban liquor sales on Sunday.
According to a MinnPost report on a policy analysis presented two years ago during a Senate hearing, Sunday sales in Minnesota could mean an estimated $7.6 million to $10.6 million in new tax revenues.
The bill was reintroduced by Senators Roger Reinert (D-Duluth) and Jeremy Miller (R-Winona).
The bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee. If the Senate Commerce Committee Chair James Metzen decides to hear the bill it will continue to move along in the political process; if not, the bill is likely to die before making it to the floor for discussion.


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Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is rolling back some reopening plans starting Wednesday.
The mayor announced he will issue an executive order that will close restaurants (excluding take and delivery services), ballrooms, banquet facilities, party venues, gyms and fitness centers, and short and long-term rentals in the county.
Gimenez says he wants to ensure hospitals continue to have the necessary staffing to save lives.
Various outdoor activities, including condo and hotel pools, will remain open but have strict social distancing and mask guidelines.
Summer camps and child daycare centers will have strict capacity limits, mandatory mask use and social distancing rules, but will remain open.
In a news release, the mayor says he will allow beaches to reopen on Tuesday, but “will be forced to close [them] again” if county officials see overcrowding and people not following public health rules.
Gimenez says office building, retail stores, and grooming services will remain open “for now.”
A county-wide curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. will remain in place except for essential workers and people who have religious obligations.
Gimenez says he continues to track the spike in the number of cases involving the younger population, 18 to 34-year-olds, which the county’s medical experts say were caused by various factors. Those experts say the factors were people going to congested parties, graduation parties, gatherings at restaurants, and street protests where people were not social distancing or wearing masks.


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Sony has officially completed the acquisition of AT&T’s Crunchyroll. The deal was reported as $1.1 billion subject to a customary working capital and other adjustments, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing.
Crunchyroll has been an underperforming arm of AT&T’s business. The company seems to have sold the arm to Sony to focus solely on its connectivity business.
Sony already has an anime streaming arm, Funimation. Crunchyroll purchase strengthens the company’s grip on the Anime business. Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in a statement, said:
With the addition of Crunchyroll, we have an unprecedented opportunity to serve anime fans like never before and deliver the anime experience”
“across any platform they choose, from theatrical, events, home entertainment, games, streaming, linear TV — everywhere and every way fans want to experience their anime,”
He goes further to say it’s “a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.”
– WarnerMedia and Discovery Are Merging To Create A Unified Streaming Portfolio
– PlayStation Now Is Finally Getting Support For 1080p Streaming
– Meghan Markle Is Creating An Animated Series For Netflix
The PlayStation 5 has sold more than 10 million consoles globally, the company announced. This is a new record as it has sold faster than the PlayStation 4 in the same timeframe.
Sony Interactive Entertainment, the parent company mentioned that they already attained the feat by July 18th, 2021, despite supply challenges from chip storage and a global pandemic.
Sony is gunning for the Anime streaming business, quite popular in the Asian continent and growing in the united states. Its PlayStation gaming business is already making loads of cash, and this acquisition should add to the war chest.
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As Americans continue to learn more about various aspects of the little-understood world of crypto currency, scandals involving trading exchanges and banking systems have left many who were already distrustful of crypto. were victims of.
But despite what others think, they still firmly believe that crypto represents the future.
So what should consumers know before making an investment?
What do you want to know
In the FTX fraud, while crypto currency was meant to serve a function, the corporation mishandled it and damaged the reputation of currency.
Some contend that the controversy is more of a human issue.
Today we take a look at what makes crypto so popular and still unknown, from its inception to its current status.
In February federal prosecutors introduced 4 extra legal expenses in opposition to the founding father of crypto buying and selling platform FTC together with conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud and securities fraud.
FTX was considered standard.
Jeremy Knop, principal and portfolio manager at currency exchanges Crypto Hedge, said FTX was probably one of the most popular brands.
A company that allowed and helped its users to trade crypto currency digital assets: Bit coin Ethereum’s and even Doge coin.
Sam Banks was a big name for Freud said Knope. He constantly talked to many such celebrities along with many different regulators. He was widely known in the crypto world as a pretty smart guy.
A clever man perhaps, but was he a man of good will This has taken many by surprise.
“Based on everything I’ve read, it sure looks like a garden,” said Cornell Law Professor Charles Whitehead.
Well I guess that has a lot to do with confidence doesn’t it? Knop added
Trust not just one person but a whole world that many people know very little about.
Now you have a lot of people who have that kind of black eye, I guess, because of FTX. But they are also relating it to crypto-nope.
Crypto as a digital currency or digital asset is a relatively new concept to most people. But the fact is that the idea was conceived 40 years ago, and it has been in practice for the past 28 years.
Well, I think people saw it as this kind of, like, group of people out there that’s just an anti-government society. He just wanted to be able to live on his own, his currency nope said at the time.
But is it ahead of its time?
Before 2009, when the white paper Bit coin A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was released on a mailing list, nothing was known about it. It opened a lot of eyes, including Knop’s, and he turned his fascination with into a career as a hedge fund manager.
“I started asking questions like, ‘Is this going to be long-term, what technical advantage does it have,'” the man recalled.
Bit coin changed hands in trade for the first time in 2009. But it wasn’t until a year later, when crypto currency was used for real-life purchases. Two pizzas were delivered at a cost of 10,000 bit coins.
It was a fantasy at the time, but today these coins are worth $280 million. Expensive, yes, but history has passed.
It was from this research that was actually found. Great. I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger potential technological innovation since the Internet. Really, it’s the next evolution, Knop said.
But like life what goes up must come down. Knop still has a lot of trust in the industry despite the decline in Bit coin and other currency values and the growing scandal around them because, in his words, it’s about more than simply money.
I believe now more than ever that it’s going to be bigger than most people expect and they’re going to impact more industries than most people expect.
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China was world's second-largest trader in 2012
Updated: 2013-04-12 16:58
By Li Jiabao (chinadaily.com.cn)
China was the world's second-largest merchandise trader in 2012, second only to the United States by just $15 billion, the People's Daily reported on Wednesday citing a report from the World Trade Organization.
China's total merchandise trade was worth $3.867 trillion in 2012, with exports of $2.049 trillion and imports of $1.818 trillion.
"China's growth should continue to outpace other leading economies, cushioning the slowdown, but exports will still be constrained by weak demand in Europe," the WTO report said on April 10.
World trade growth fell to 2.0 percent in 2012 - down from 5.2 percent in 2011 - and is expected to remain sluggish in 2013 at around 3.3 percent as the economic slowdown in Europe continues to suppress global import demand, the WTO report added.


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PITTSBURGH, June 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has just announced its annual findings regarding global anti-union violence. Again, Colombia topped this list, accounting for nearly half of all the union killings in the world.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080131/DC12982LOGO )
Last year, 48 of the 101 trade unionists assassinated worldwide were Colombians. See report: http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-annual-survey.html. As the ITUC reports, 22 of the Colombian unionists killed were "senior union leaders." Five were women.
The United Steelworkers (USW) continues to be gravely concerned about the disregard for Colombian trade unionists' right to free speech, right to organize and, most importantly, right to life. After learning of the most recent statistics on killings in Colombia, USW President Leo Gerard said, "While those pushing for greater trade privileges for Colombia claim, for reasons of their own economic self-interest, that the labor rights situation is improving in Colombia, the latest ITUC report demonstrates how false that claim is. We continue to be appalled by the human and labor rights situation in Colombia and urge the U.S. to sever its substantial military ties with that country in light of the relentless killings."
Also troubling is the report's revelation that anti-union killings increased by 30 percent globally, with a surge in countries in the Western Hemisphere, including Guatemala, which ranked second most dangerous in the world with 16 union assassinations and Honduras, third most dangerous with 12 union assassinations. This is at a time when Honduras is seeking re-admittance to the Organization of American States (OAS) after a military coup last summer.
Meanwhile, Colombia's largest union confederation, the United Workers Central (CUT), announced that the business sector, led by Ed Potter, director of global relations for The Coca-Cola Co., successfully maneuvered to keep Colombia off a list of 25 nations which the International Labor Organization (ILO) monitors in light of those countries' demonstrated problems with worker and labor rights.
Colombia had been listed for years, given its long track record as the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. But this year the business sector at the ILO's Tripartite Standards Commission (a commission made up of business, government and union groups) insisted that rather than include Colombia again, the list be eliminated entirely and no country monitored. The CUT, which participated in this Commission, described this as "blackmail." The ILO commission's compromise was to approve a list excluding Colombia -- where nearly half of the assassinations of trade unionists in the world occurred last year.
The business sector's machinations at the ILO have real-world consequences because Colombia will use its deletion from the ILO "blacklist" in its continued push for the U.S., Canada and the EU to approve Free Trade Agreements with it. Those proposed trade pacts, like other free trade agreements, are designed to promote multi-national penetration of Colombia to the detriment of the environment of Colombia and the rights of workers, indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombians.
Despite removal from the list, Colombia did not leave the ILO's Tripartite discussions unscathed. An ILO High Level Tripartite Commission will be sent to Colombia. For Colombia, accepting this commission was, CUT said, "admitting that the situation of freedom of association in Colombia has not improved." See, CUT statement.
CONTACT: Wayne Ranick (412) 562-2442
SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)


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College Students in India Check Smartphones Over 150 Times a Day: Study
The research, titled "Smartphone Dependency, Hedonism and Purchase Behaviour: Implications for Digital India Initiatives", has been conducted in 20 central universities, where 200 students each were interviewed.
Jio vs Airtel vs Vodafone: Here Are The Best Prepaid Plans Under Rs 400 (Image: Reuters Pictures)
On an average, a college student in India checks his mobile phone over 150 times a day, according to a study conducted by Aligarh Muslim University and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). The research, titled "Smartphone Dependency, Hedonism and Purchase Behaviour: Implications for Digital India Initiatives", has been conducted in 20 central universities, where 200 students each were interviewed. "Anxiety and fear of missing out on information make university students check their mobile devices as many as 150 times a day on an average, an activity which can have adverse effects on the students' health as well as academics.
"Only 26 percent of the respondents said they use smartphones primarily to make calls. The remaining respondents use smartphones for other purposes such as accessing social networking sites, Google searches and for entertainment such as watching movies," said Mohammed Naved Khan, the Project Director. At least 14 percent of the students uses smartphones for three hours or less in a day while around 63 percent of them use it for four to seven hours daily. "It came as a shock to us that around 23 percent (of students) use the devices for more than eight hours a day," Khan added.
According to the study, eighty percent of the students own a mobile phone and most of them prefer smartphones owing to convenience in the installation of applications, host of features, and ease of use and also work as affordable substitutes for a computer. The study conducted by researchers at AMU has been funded by the ICSSR with an aim to understand various facets of smartphone dependency and addiction among college-going students.
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When it comes to battery life, the smartphone world seems to agree to a universal standard of single-day battery life.
A recent report from Strategy Analytics compares the recently launched Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact with other smartphones with a similar battery capacity.
Based on results achieved via testing, the Xperia XZ2 was the most-enduring phone in the firm’s tests, lasting 36 hours and a minute. It edged out its compact version, which lasted 34 hours and 20 minutes.
It was followed by the LG G6, while the more mainstream rivals, the iPhone X (32:20), Huawei P10 (32:08) and Galaxy S9 lagged behind. In particular, the S9 at 26 hours, 52 minutes, and Oppo R11 at 16 hours and 36 minutes came as a major surprise.
The test saw the researchers test the phones for 16 hours on preset testing parameters, running them through the usual list of tasks that the phones normally go through, such as calls, texts, social media, camera, and games.
The brightness was set at 150 nits for all phones, with the volume set to a maximum. The rest of the settings were set to manufacture default and were not modified. The time for the battery to exhaust was subsequently measured.
Strategy Analytics does mention that the tests were conducted at Sony’s behest, however, given its reputation, we doubt that the outcome was in any way partial. Still, Sony has various other battles to win if it has to position itself as a viable alternative to Apple and Samsung.


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There's plenty of gossip circulating about Nvidia's apparently-forthcoming launch of the GeForce GTX 465 next month, but it looks as though the green team is also planning to launch another GPU, the GeForce GTX 460, just a month later.
Despite the closeness of the model numbers, it looks as though there are going to be quite a few architectural differences between the GTX 460 and the GTX 465. The tech hearsay shovellers over at Donanimhaber (Google translation) claim to have picked up a few details about the 460, saying that it will have 768MB of GDDR5 memory, which will be addressed via a 192-bit memory interface.
Previous rumours have said that the GeForce GTX 465 will be based on Nvidia's forthcoming GF104 chip, which looks set to be quite a different beast from the GF100 chip found in the current GeForce GTX 470 and 480.
According to reports, the GF104 can have up to 256 stream processors, compared with the 480 (and theoretically maximum of 512) on the GF100. If correct, and if the GTX 460 is indeed based on the GF104, then this would make the GTX 460 quite radically different from the GTX 465.
A set of recently leaked benchmarks and photos showed that the GeForce GTX 465 was likely to still be based on the GF100 chip, featuring 352 stream processors clocked at 1,215MHz. So, while there's not much numerically to separate the GTX 460 from the GTX 465, it looks like you could be looking at a difference of 96 stream processors, 232MB of RAM and a narrower memory interface.
Donanimhaber claims that the GeForce GTX 460 is scheduled for release in mid-July 2010, and previous reports have put the price of cards at just under the £200 mark.


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Valley National Bank’s new headquarters in Morristown is on track to open next spring after the completion of vertical construction at the downtown site, its developer announced Wednesday.
Market experts say large, high-profile office deals are likely still to come in New Jersey, despite the push for hybrid schedules and lingering questions about the return to work.
Construction is underway on Valley Bank’s future headquarters in Morristown, where it will lease 120,000 square feet of new office space built by SJP Properties and Scotto Properties.
A development team is planning a spring groundbreaking for the new 120,000-square-foot office building in Morristown that will become the headquarters of Valley National Bancorp.
SJP Properties and Scotto Properties have completed the core and shell of a new building in Morristown that will house 110,000 square feet of office space for Deloitte LLP.
The first phase of a new high-end office and retail development in downtown Morristown is on track to open later this year after recently reaching a construction milestone.
SJP Properties and Scotto Properties have broken ground on the first of two office and retail buildings in Morristown, the future home of Deloitte LLP, in a project that will transform another piece of the town’s bustling central business district.
A development that will transform a stretch of downtown Morristown — bringing 340,000 square feet of high-end office space and new public plazas — is set to break ground in the coming months after securing final approvals from the municipality.
New Jersey’s office market saw two major leases and a pair of blockbuster sales in the first quarter, headlining an active start to the year before the onset of the coronavirus crisis.


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Novell to Sell WordPerfect -- Sixteen months after spending over a billion dollars to get into the desktop applications market with WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, Novell Inc. announced last week that its word-processing and spreadsheet product lines are for sale. The move got a positive reaction from Wall Street and investors - who'd much rather see Novell concentrate on networking products than diverting effort to competing with Microsoft's Office application suite - but drew sharp criticism from users, since the future of these applications is now foggier than ever. Though Novell declined to give names, it said that there are at least two serious bidders for the products, one of which is rumored to be Ray Noorda (former CEO of Novell and the architect of Novell's original purchase of the applications), who now controls commercial rights to Linux, a popular shareware version of Unix. [GD]
How Loud Are Your Mac's Fans?
When they get hot, Macs turn on various internal fans to keep components cool. The noise can be annoying, but just how loud is it? If you have an iOS device with a built-in microphone, you can download one of many free sound meter apps (search on
decibel in the App Store) and see if you're subjecting your ears to a truly unreasonable noise level.


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Picture a fully laden, V-8-powered luxury SUV (let’s be generous and say 15 miles per gallon) heading out for a week-long vacation road trip with the whole family aboard. They’re driving from Cambridge, Massachusetts (Our Fair City) all the way to New Orleans, a journey that would have been unthinkable a few years ago when gas was $4 a gallon. Back then, they’d have taken the Prius, and driven from Cambridge to, well, New Hampshire.
That image fits well with where America is at today. We’re rediscovering the road and, according to new Federal Highway Administration figures, we covered a whopping 3.148 trillion miles in 2015 (264.2 billion in December alone). The yearly total shatters the previous record of 3.003 trillion miles—set in 2007, before the recession and the big jump in gas prices.
And you bet we’re buying those big SUVs. According to a Truthout op-ed by Daniel Becker and James Gerstenzang, sales of SUVs and light trucks is up almost 10 percent in the first two months of 2016. It's not surprising, then, that SUVs dominated the New York Auto Show introductions.
The pair blame the auto industry’s $15 billion annual marketing budget for convincing us bigger is best. “If low fuel prices alone sold gas-guzzlers,” they say, “the automakers wouldn’t have to devote to truck sales an increasing portion of an advertising budget that rivals the national budget of Uruguay.” They add that Americans are taking home vehicles designed to haul lumber, but they “aren’t lumbering along with anything larger than a couple of 20-ounce lattes.”
The public’s preference for gas guzzlers is giving the auto industry ammunition to weaken fuel economy standards that now call for fleet averages of 54.5 mpg by 2025. If the rules do get watered down, it’s a real shame. According to Becker and Gerstenzang, if the standards stay in place:
The government projects that the nation would gain between $350 billion and $450 billion in fuel savings—roughly three times the cost of the fuel efficiency technology. Consumers would pocket more than $4,000 in individual savings, even after paying the higher up-front costs for cleaner cars. If gas prices rise—and who thinks they won’t by 2025—the savings would be even greater.
The connection between SUVs and global warming is pretty clear. Becker told me:
Driving pumps 25 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution into the atmosphere for every gallon of gas consumed. Driving an SUV consumes more gallons therefore pollutes more. So consumers must resist automaker marketing pressure to sell more gas-guzzling SUV's .
There's another big negative about the current trend—more people are dying on the highways. As the Detroit Bureau reports, road fatalities (down to 32,000 in 2014) had declined a lot since the worst years in the 1970s. But new data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows the carnage up eight percent in the first three quarters of 2015. The increase in driving is a likely cause.
Is SUV overconfidence another reason? I’ve noticed that people drive these road hogs with more abandon than regular passenger cars because they’re convinced—erroneously—that they’re safer. But rollover risk kisses off any advantage from driving around in a heavy armored tank.
The trends aren't great. Because of SUVs and trucks, fleet fuel economy--which should be soaring in anticipation of 2025--is essentially stagnant. At 25.3 mpg in March, it was unchanged from February. Fleet economy is actually down 0.5 mpg from August 2014, says the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan.
All those cars on the road is leading to epic congestion and tie-ups. A Transportation Department report, Beyond Traffic, imagines the year 2045:
A driver sits in traffic for hours, which may have been common in Los Angeles a generation before. But this particular driver lives in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2045, Omaha is the new LA.
It's possible, the report says, that we'll avoid this fate because self-driving cars will create a paradise where "car crashes are as much a part of the past as horse-and-buggy accidents." But unfortunately, it says, we're behind Europe in paving the way legislatively for that to happen.


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tralac’s Daily News Selection
Profiled African trade and investment conferences:
(i) Starting today
In Johannesburg: The Corporate Council on Africa’s US-Africa Infrastructure Conference. For Twitter updates: @CorpCnclAfrica
(ii) Later this week
In Arusha: EAC Sectoral Committee on Investment (6-7 November)
In Johannesburg: Africa Investment Forum (7-9 November)
Today’s media briefing: All set to tilt the tide of investments into Africa
The Africa Investment Forum kicked off on Monday with a media briefing in the South African capital. The game changing event, aimed at attracting multi-billion-dollar deals across the continent, is set to usher in a new era for Africa’s investment landscape. Dubbed by the African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina as the “collective deal of the century for investment in and the development of Africa,” the forum will focus on advancing projects to bankable stages, raising capital and accelerating the financial closure of deals.
Nigeria and the AfCFTA: speech by Nigeria’s VP, Prof Kemi Asinbajo, to the Africa Trade Forum
As a metaphor for the purpose of our gathering, Lagos demonstrates that economies, cities and countries that are open, grow faster and prosper more than those that are closed. And Lagos is one such example, becoming very quickly, we are told, climbing up to the 5th largest economy in Africa. Permit me to speak briefly on the value of a rigorous domestic process of stakeholder engagement for trade agreements. It is well over seven months since the agreement establishing the AfCFTA was signed in Kigali, on 21 March 2018. My principal focus, therefore, is to share with you the stage of the on-going internal process in Nigeria and the results of outreach, sensitization and consultations with stakeholders, because everybody has been asking: so, what is Nigeria doing? So, I think it might just be very helpful to fill in the gaps. So, what have we done? What have we learned? What are the current state-of-play and envisaged next steps? [Dangote urges African countries to get foundation right for AfCFTA signing]
Chairmanship of the continental FTA negotiations. During the 6th meeting of the African Union Ministers of Trade that took place in Dakar, 3-4 June 2018, Uganda was unanimously elected to chair the AfCFTA Forum for African Ministers of Trade. Uganda is expected to champion the AfCFTA for a period of one year, which commenced in June 2018. The election is in recognition of Uganda’s active participation in the Continental Free Trade Area negotiations that started in 2016 with the aim of creating an African single market. During this tenure, Uganda will lead the conclusion of the AfCFTA negotiations.
Promotion of cross-border export zones. The informal cross-border export earnings in the financial year 2017/18 were estimated at $595.51m, representing 17.08% of Uganda’s exports. The main informal commodities included beans, maize, sugar, other grains, bananas, fish, among others. DR Congo was the main informal partner of the country with total informal export trade amounting to $291.48m in 2017/18. It was followed by Kenya at $149.94m; Rwanda at $54.41m; South Sudan at $54.17m and Tanzania at $45.52m, in the same period. [Various downloads available]
Why importers could derail SGR’s Kampala journey (The Standard)
China plans to sell off its African infrastructure debt to investors (The East African)
Regional governments could soon get access to more Chinese debt if a plan by a leading Chinese banking conglomerate to buy African infrastructure debts from the government starting next year, repackage them into securities and then sell them to investors, comes to fruition. The plan will see Hong Kong mortgage insurer Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation buy a diverse basket of infrastructure loans next year and explore the idea of “securitising” or repackaging them into securities for sale to investors, allowing it extra liquidity that it can loan out to finance more infrastructure projects. “This initiative we believe will help ‘recycle’ commercial banks’ capital to be redeployed into other greenfield infrastructure projects, besides enabling wider capital markets participation in infrastructure development under the Road and Belt initiative,” said HKMC Greater China chief executive Helen Wong.
UNDP-China case studies: Experience and innovation of China’s agricultural assistance in Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique
With both African countries working to expand agriculture production - a challenge heightened by climate change - the two programmes linked local farmers and officials with Chinese knowledge, technology, and market-inclusive systems to boost food production. The reports assess the two partnerships - the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Project in Guinea-Bissau and the Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center in Mozambique - as examples of what South-South collaboration can achieve. ”UNDP welcomes these joint assessments, which illustrate China’s commitment to partnerships that support the achievement of national development goals and the aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063 and 2030 Agenda. We will continue to facilitate increased South-South cooperation to help address the Global Goals’ financing gap, supporting the full national ownership of partnering African countries in the process,” said Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Africa. [International Forum on Reform and Opening Up and Poverty Reduction in China: consensus statement]
China silk giant to set up base in Kenya (The East African)
The world’s largest producer of silk, Guangdong Silk-Tex Group, has announced its plans to set up shop in Kenya. Top officials of the government-owned company met President Uhuru Kenyatta in Shanghai, Sunday during which they confirmed plans to set up business in Nairobi. The company will not only setup a silk processing factory at the Export Processing Zone in Athi River, but will also establish a silk farm. The Guangdong Silk-Tex Group will establish a cocoon farm on an estimated 8,237 acres of land, with capacity to handle the entire silk value chain covering cocoon procurement, silk reeling, weaving and trading. The venture is expected to create over 300,000 jobs for Kenyans.
Related: Uhuru takes on China, demands ‘mutually beneficial’ trade deals. The Star understands that during the bilateral talks, Uhuru expressed concern about the trade imbalance and demanded access to the Chinese market for Kenya’s produce. “Access to the Chinese market will have a positive impact on the lives of common people and this will help counter any negative propaganda peddled by detractors of our strong Sino-African relations. As a nation we look forward to an open Chinese market for Kenya’s exports,” Uhuru said in a tweet after the meeting. [Xi Jinping pledges to cut Chinese import tariffs]
Kenyan exporters scouting for deals at Shanghai trade fair. “The China International Import Expo is set to attract about 90 firms from Kenya which will be showcasing their products for six days at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai,” said Export Promotion Council CEO Peter Biwott. “We are looking forward to showcase agriculture related products such as tea, flowers, coffee and nuts. These are areas where we have competitive advantage.”
Deutsche Bank and South Africa’s Standard Bank have agreed to co-operate under a US-led guarantee programme to promote US agricultural exports. The GSM-102 programme, which applies to US exports exclusively, seeks to encourage commercial financing of agricultural commodities exports to countries where credit is necessary to sustain and increase US sales. [SA’s champion in the US, Congressman Ed Royce, takes a bow]
Ghana: Textile workers demand border monitoring to check smuggling (Ghanaweb)
Leadership of the Textile, Garment and Leather Employees Union are demanding that the borders at Aflao and other entry points be strictly monitored to stop pirated goods from entering the country. Their demand follows the decision by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ghana Revenue Authority to make the Tema port the only entry point for textiles into the country. According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, it is prudent that there is a designated point of entry for textiles in order to prevent the influx of pirated goods onto the markets.
Indonesia: Expanding palm oil exports without neglecting existing markets (Jakarta Post)
Speaking at the 14th Indonesian Palm Oil Conference on Thursday, Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukito cited potential export markets the government is targeting in Africa such as Mozambique, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. He hoped palm oil businesses would follow suit. Opening new markets, however, is always easier said than done. According to Association of Palm Oil Producers chairman Joko Supriyono, palm oil businesses faced tough challenges in opening new markets. First, a new market has no strong demand. Second, new markets have their own barriers. Iran, for example, is cut off from the international financial system as a result of United States sanctions and therefore, trading with it has to go through a third party. African countries, meanwhile, have no storage infrastructure for palm oil, and therefore, exports to Africa have to be delivered in packages, resulting in higher costs.
The Union government is planning to draw up a long-term road map to promote India as a major hub for exports of automobiles and spare parts with a focus on Africa and Latin America. The commerce ministry is in consultations with industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and leading auto makers to help prepare the plan, two people directly aware of the development told Mint. A key focus of the commerce ministry is to drive exports to countries such as Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and Kenya in Africa, and to Chile, Peru and Colombia in Latin America. Also discussed were ways to drive exports to West Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia and Southeast Asian nations such as Indonesia, Philippines, as well as Australia. [Nigeria imports 1.2m vehicles in six years]
This paper explains how and why assumptions about the nature of global value chains can have major implications for such competitiveness calculations going forward. In particular, we argue that accounting for global value chains lowers the importance of countries that export components in global value chains, which generally involve trade with close neighbors, and increases the importance of exports of final goods, which tend to go to countries that are further away. As the weight of neighboring countries linked to each other through regional supply chains fall, more weight is placed on countries further away. We also find that the distinction between the new and the traditional indexes has not had significant implications because of how key bilateral exchange rates have behaved in the past. Going forward, assessments of the relatively roles of major currencies in competitiveness calculations will become more important.
Today’s Quick Links:
Collins Odote: Lessons from Kenya’s Ease of Doing Business rating
World Bank’s $293m for East Africa’s technical schools
Posted: The AfDB’s Governors’ Digest
Capital outflows force Nigeria’s external reserves down to $41.995bn
Laurent Gonnet: Toward a deep transformation of the banking industry in Africa
Dubai group seeks to enhance Nigeria’s agriculture exports


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Gulsara Rysulbekova, a retailer at Bishkek’s Osh Bazaar, refuses to buy Chinese foodstuffs. “Chinese rice is made out of plastic,” she says. She then points to a sack of red-brown rice grown in Kyrgyzstan’s Uzgen province. “That is what real rice looks like. If I stock Chinese rice, my customers won’t buy it. How can they make plov with Chinese rice?”
Rysulbekova’s comments are a reflection of the uneasy relationship that many Kyrgyz have with Chinese goods. One the one hand, the flood of Chinese imports into the country since the 1991 Soviet collapse has been a blessing. Affordable imports have helped many Kyrgyz cushion themselves against the impact of persistent inflation. At the same time, an open trade policy has created an avenue for Kyrgyz entrepreneurs to gain profits by re-exporting Chinese goods to larger, better-protected markets in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and even Russia. On the other hand, the rise of China’s economic influence in Kyrgyzstan has fostered sovereignty concerns, with many Kyrgyz complaining that their country has become a dumping ground for Chinese junk.
To read the full story
Chris Rickleton is a Bishkek-based journalist.


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North and South Carolina may not be alike in many ways, but it appears they share similar stories.
GRI Renewable industries ended the 2014 fiscal year with manufacturing capacity of approximately 1500 towers and about 3,000 employees.
Japan-based automotive manufacturer expanding its footprint in the area and will create 300 jobs in Putnam County.
Company plans to build six-story building on Theatre Square and create 500 new jobs.
Established in New Albany in 1972, Beach Mold & Tool Inc. is a privately held company that manufactures plastic injection molding and precision tools.
ASA plans to create 1,450 new direct jobs and produce 1.3 billion pounds of aluminum annually.
Based in Florida, All Fresh Farms is an indoor hydroponic production and packaging operation that specializes in growing lettuce mixes, kales, and basil.
Faurecia is the world’s sixth-largest automotive supplier, with four business groups: automotive seating, emissions control technologies, interior systems and automotive exteriors.
Since its inception in 2013, more than 80 companies have embraced the Empire State’s innovative START-UP NY program, which created tax-free zones linked to New York’s system of higher education.
Iberville Parish project comes after governor’s economic mission to Asia; will result in more than 750 new direct and indirect jobs and 2,100 new construction jobs.


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Packaged food sales in India are forecast to soar by more than two-thirds over the next four years, according to research from industry analysts BMI.
Rising disposable incomes and the on-going urbanisation of India's population are set to drive the packaged food market in India, BMI said.
The analysts forecast that, by 2012, packaged food sales will climb over 67 per cent to US$21.7bn, figures that add further weight to the perception of India as a key emerging market for multinational food manufacturers.
The young, urban, rich are also starting to demand more ‘premium' food and beverages, BMI said, a trend that looks set to propel per capita spending on packaged food.
"Although non-essential consumer goods are barely established at the mass-market level, premiumisation is already becoming a viable growth option, particularly among younger consumers in major urban centres," BMI said in its report.
With India's economy forecast to grow at 7.9 per cent a year between now and 2012, multinational interest in the market is ‘massive', BMI said. However, local conglomerates are investing more in the country's food sector, the analysts added.
The likes of Reliance Industries and RPG have broken into India's burgeoning organised retail sector, while the likes of cigarette giants ITC and Godfrey have made moves into packaged food.
Food specialists, like dairy group Amul, are also looking to become ‘food generalists', BMI said.
"A dynamic industry should fuel competition, which will in turn heighten marketing and promotional spending, as well as drive down the price of non-essential, added-value items," BMI added. "Such a trend would fuel consumption and drive down food spending in value terms, with higher volume sales able to offset slightly lower per-unit sales prices."